'Anne' author

Dear Editor,

If you are a fan of "Anne of Green Gables" and "Anne of Avanlea" shown on TV, you will be correct in thinking that those stories were based on the life Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author.

She was born in 1874 at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia.

When she was 21 months old, her mother, Clara Macneill Montgomery, died of T.B. her grief-stricken father sent her to be raised by her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Woolner Macneill. They were very strict and she felt isolated.

At ate 7, she felt like an orphan when her father, Hugh Montgomery, married again and went to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

The main character in "Anne of Green Gables," Anne Shirley, was an orphan. Matthew, the old bachelor and Mareilla, his old maid sister, are mirrored images of Lucy Maud Montgomery's maternal grandparents.

Anne Shirley obtained a teaching license to help Mareilla financially. Lucy Maud Montgomery taught school while establishing herself as a writer. During her lifetime, she published 20 novels, 500 short stories, an autobiography, a book of poetry and wrote stories for newspapers and magazines.

For a while, she worked as a proofreader for newspapers in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 2008, the Canada Post, which is like the U.S. National Post Office, issued a pair of stamps honoring Lucy Maud Montgomery. She was invested in the Order of the British Empire in 1935 by king George V.

She dies in 1942 in Toronto, Ontario. Her grave is in Cavendish on Prince Edward Island. This has been designated as a National Historic Site by the Canadian government.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Neb.